Oooooops Keanu get in Smash

Movie fans are used to seeing action hero Keanu Reeves expertly handling the world's fastest cars in high-speed chases. But in real life it seems Keanu isn't so cool behind the wheel. The Canadian actor showed off the damage caused by his black Porsche while dining out in West Hollywood. Keanu has sacrificed about $38 million to prevent the two new Matrix films being scrapped - so if he can afford that generosity, it's not going to be hard to find the funds to fix his Porsche."

Matrix Rewired

Mar 27 2003
Rick Fulton

THE Matrix changed Hollywood film-making for ever - and now 192 brings you a glimpse of the stunning sequel as well as the first interviews with its stars.

The Matrix: Reloaded is now just two months from release.

As well as seeing Keanu Reeves back as Neo, Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, Carrie- Anne Moss as Trinity and Hugh Weaving as Agent Smith, it adds Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe, Morpehus' love interest, and Monica Bellucci as Persephone, who tries to move Neo from his path.

Most surprisingly, Adrian and Neil Rayment, best known as the DIY twins on ITV's Better Homes, play blond dreadlocked baddies.

After The Matrix hit cinemas in 1999, its slow-motion fight scene techniques were copied in films as diverse as Shrek and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The film created a new world discovered by Reeves' character Thomas A Anderson, whose hacker name is Neo, where robots use humans as power sources.

The world we see is made up in our subconscious, just to keep us inactive. A few know the secret and are trying to break free.

In the sequel, out on May 23, it's six months later and Neo has 72 hours to stop 250,000 probes discovering humankind's last stronghold Zion and destroying them.

The film will end in a cliffhanger - literally, a scene which will then be cut in half. Fans will have to wait six months until late November to see what happens in The Matrix: Revolutions - both films were made back to back over 270 days.

Director brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski are staying tight-lipped about the epic, but producer Joel Silver explained: "This story was designed as a four-and- a-half-hour movie that is being broken up and shown as two films.

"That is essentially what it is. It literally stops right in the middle of a scene and is designed to flow right into the next picture.

"In Reloaded, Neo goes to Zion. We knew we couldn't do that when we made the first film so we cut the story off and ended it with Neo flying off into the sky. That was the end of the first episode.

"If the first film had not been a success, that would have been the end and it would have been a shame. That was not the story the brothers wanted to tell.

"They had to do the opening movie to establish this world and create a place where superheroes could exist in a fashion that was not Spiderman."

For cast members such as Fishburne, there was no question they wanted to finish what they'd started - even if they didn't know what it was about. Laurence said: "I always read the script before I sign, but not with this film. We were given Reloaded first and then we had to wait a month or two before they gave us Revolutions to read, because it was too much to take in just one sitting. Then months later, we got the computer game script."

While the rooftop fight scene with slow-motion bullets was stunning in the first film, an epic freeway multi-car chase will freeze the blood in Reloaded as the camera jumps from car to car.

Fishburne said: "It took around 40 days to shoot it on a mile and a half of freeway. We had 200 extras every day. They had to come with their cars, drive the stretch that we shot, get off, drive back the other way, then do it all again."

Keanu Reeves, who like the rest of the main leads had to spend time at an extreme driving school, said: "There are some pretty extraordinary car stunts. They used some great drivers.

"We are talking about 40, 50 or 60-year-old cats who were flipping big rigs. `You wanna do a 180 with an 18-wheeler? I'm your guy'. They did one sequence where three cars went airborne at the same time with people in them.

"People speak about the cool special effects but this scene was just some good old- fashioned mechanical cats flipping cars."

Carrie-Anne Moss' character is in the thick of the mechanical stunts, too.

She said: "The motorcycle was a bit scary, but having the metal of the car was cool. I loved doing the car stuff. When are you going to get a chance to smash into cars in real life?"

Explaining how the film will use virtual cinematography, Fishburne said: "It's strange and all very new. There are lots of different stages you have to go through. You do stuff on film, then on motion capture, then face capture and they take that and make soup with it."

But he reckons it's worth it.

He added: "The choreography is much more sophisticated and complex. There are multiple opponents in some of the fights and, technically speaking, some of what they do didn't exist when we did the first film. The new technology will raise the level of what you see."

Jada's character, Niobe, was written especially for the second and third film and a lot of the story is seen through her eyes. And she gave herself even more pressure by making the character up as the film began rolling.

Jada said: "On the first day of shooting, I said to myself that I had to rework this. I didn't have the opportunity to talk to the boys when I started because things were already rolling.

"She is captain of her own ship. She is a very powerful soldier. She wants to do her part in the fate of Zion. She is a warrior.

"I really enjoyed the training - although I just had to learn to get my kicks right. When I first started, nobody was sure what my style would be so they basically tried a few things and style but the training was pretty easy in comparison to what Carrie- Anne and Keanu and Laurence did."

The Matrix used mythology, modern computer hacking and even Alice In Wonderland - but like Star Wars the film has already built up its own world and philosophy.

Keanu Reeves explained: "Don't be alienated by the new technology. Don't be alienated by a difference in religion. Don't be alienated by expectation. Understand, have a point of view and have compassion. These films are not anti- technology and not anti-human. This is not about spectacle. It is about your humanity. Don't let that machine put a screen before your eyes. Use it to see clearer."

Although the final instalment of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy will also be a huge cinema draw, The Matrix phenomenon looks like seeping through every pore of cinema fans.

There is already talk that The Matrix: Reloaded will be premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15 - the same date as its American release.

As well as the two live-action sequel films, there are nine Animatrix animated shorts which will be released on a DVD in June. The video game is an hour's worth of material that will tie up with scenes in the film.

You will see scenes that begin in the movie but end in the video game and then scenes that begin in the video game but end in the movie.

But first, it's the live action films.

Joel said: "We wanted to release both films in the summer because we felt the audience would want to see the third film as quickly as possible.

"I think six months is quick. It's never been done that quickly before.

"People will live in the cinema and then stand in line for the next one."

Matrix: The 'trix of the trade

It's a film franchise, a computer game, a series of animated shorts - and even a philosophy for life, or so the producers of 'The Matrix' would have us believe. Fiona Morrow remains unconvinced

The Matrix has been Revisited, it's about to be Reloaded and, later this year, it'll go through Revolutions. And if you don't understand a word of this, you're the kind of person for whom marketing is just so much good money flushed down the pan.

But for every mortal inured to the beating drums of hype, thousands are seduced, lapping up each piece of merchandise and franchise offshoot that rates a mention on the internet. And for sheer depth and breadth of convoluted temptation, The Matrix is right up there at the top of the list; a marketing phenomenon that has fashioned a nirvana for nerds and a cash cow for its creators and producers.

The great selling point for all things spun from The Matrix is the notion that its creators/writers/directors, the Wachowski brothers, have originated such a complicated, multifaceted piece of work that it justifies endless extrapolations. Thus, we are soon to be rewarded with The Animatrix – a collection of nine animated shorts, four of them actually written by the fraternal pairing, designed to both illuminate and deepen our understanding of the original concept – and the video game extraordinaire Enter The Matrix.

Joel Silver, a man not exactly new to movie branding (Lethal Weapon, Die Hard) and producer in one form or another on all The Matrix products, is quick to stress that none of this is essential, but it really, really helps. "It enhances the watching experience," he explains. "Those who have played the game, or seen the shorts will see so much more of what has happened."

"The Wachowski brothers are dynamos," he enthuses. "They just don't stop – they've written all of this. The video game is a very complicated story that they wrote about 600 pages of material and directed about an hour of footage for."

The fun on Planet Matrix, it seems, never ends: "All of the actors in the movie have scenes in the video game, and the game scenes connect back to the movie itself.

"There are scenes in the movie that will end with the movie but will continue with the video game." His explanation is already starting to make my brain ache. "Two supporting players in the movie are the leads in the video game – it tells the story of how Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith) has to go to the mail sorting facility and find the package and get it back to Zion."

Clear? Well apparently, if you choose to avoid the hours of enlightenment the game offers, you will start The Matrix Reloaded at the point at which she makes it back to Zion with the post. I think that'll probably do for me.

If I sound cynical, then let's be clear: I enjoyed The Matrix as much as the next film fan, always happy for a couple of hours of well-made, technically ferocious, whizz-bang action. But did it change my world view? No. Have I been frantic with the expectation of the sequels? No. Is my memory of the movie diminished by the ongoing assault and battery of all the extras? Yes, I'm afraid it is.

Why? Because – and you can call me old-fashioned – what matters to me is the film, and only the film. I don't want to have to "enhance" the cinematic experience by overloading on souped-up flimflam. To me, this overpackaged, pricey nonsense is nothing more than a 21st-century version of Dungeons and Dragons. They may be selling life in The Matrix as cool, but it's really just another hiding place for spotty geeks who find the real world a little too, well, real.

Unfortunately, such obsession can have dire consequences: the high-school killers at Columbine took the cult of The Matrix deadly seriously.

There's no denying the profits being made here: the original film grossed almost $172m (£110m) in the US alone; the DVD has sold more than 15m copies worldwide. (Even enfant terrible Gaspar Noé pointed out that the release of his infamous rape-revenge movie Irréversible on DVD will be bound to enjoy some fallout from The Matrix Reloaded hype: those completists just won't be able to resist buying it for Monica Bellucci.)

It's hardly surprising that all concerned should want to capitalise on their product, but if only they could stop themselves from encouraging the idea that this is some great intellectual treatise and that somewhere, in the midst of the great special effects and whipping cameras, there's a philosophical core just waiting to be unravelled.

Take The Final Flight of the Osiris, one of the nine shorts that makes up The Animatrix. It is to be released theatrically with Lawrence Kasdan's feature, Dreamcatcher, also a Warner Bros film and, word has it, a disappointment. One can only assume that Warners are hoping to shore up the possibility of a box-office flop, safe in the knowledge that Matrix devotees will pay the ticket simply for the nine-minute add-on.

Silver describes it as "The Matrix 1.5", presumably because it ends with the package being posted. But although it's an undoubtedly impressive, exciting nine minutes of CGI celluloid, it begins with a sexy sword fight between a man and a woman apparently determined only to slice off each others' clothing. As the characters are stripped bare, we are drawn up close and personal to their skin, his muscles, her buttocks. Especially her buttocks. (Remember that the Wachowski's were also responsible for the erotic lesbian thriller Bound.)

As the flesh of this nubile fantasy flexes her considerable assets millimetres from the camera, we are entreated to notice how realistic the texture, how detailed, right down to the pores. Granted, animation wunderkind and director Andy Jones has pushed the technology to extraordinary lengths, but though the landscape of the CGI human body has never looked better, facial expression remains elusive.

Then again, when you can have physical perfection, why would you bother with the emotional depth a – necessarily flawed – actor can bring? And isn't it rather neat, that in the apocalyptic scenario of The Matrix itself, where humans have been replaced by machines, the scenario might be paralleled in the movie's very make-up?

"It's sort of even more than that," responds an excited Silver. "The fact is we

Warner Bros kicks off Matrix marketing onslaught

Tim Dams in London 28 March 2003 04:00

Warner Bros kicked off in earnest its international marketing campaign for The Matrix sequels this week, with a major London presentation ・titled The Year Of The Matrix - to introduce the two films to the industry.

Warners invited over 300 press, exhibitors and retail partners to the presentation on Thursday(March 27) at the Warner Village cinema in London痴 Leicester Square. One senior Warners・executive said it was the first event of its kind in the world.

As well as trailers for the films with screen commentary from stars such as Keanu Reeves and producer Joel Silver, the presentation also featured highlights from the Enter The Matrix video game and the DVD of The Animatrix, a collection of short films written and produced by Larry and Andy Wachowski, directors of The Matrix. Warners also screened Final Flight Of The Osiris, one of the short films making up The Animatrix.

The presentation was aimed at heightening anticipation for The Matrix sequels among the industry, as well as explaining how the many elements of the complex Matrix launch ・including the DVD and video game ・fit together.

The Matrix Reloaded opens in UK cinemas on May 23, while The Matrix Revolutions opens on November 7. The DVD of The Animatrix collection of short films will be released on June 2, and the Enter The Matrix game will be launched on May 15.

Enter the Matrix

Every once in a while a game comes along that somehow, stirs so much talk and publicity, every single gamer seems to know it's coming and can't wait.

It's happening again. The buzz surrounding 'Enter the Matrix' is likely due to a unique relationship. The game and the two Matrix movie sequels were made at the same time with help from the entire movie crew.

David Perry, developer of Shiny Entertainment said, "Originally you would just license the name of the movies. You weren't allowed to use any of the actors or catch phrases or anything. It's now at a point where directors are not just saying here you can use our property, they're helping make new content for the video game, that's why this is so special."

In fact, an entire hour of footage just for the game was shot by the filmmakers. That kind of cooperation allows the game to work with the movie, rather than just being a virtual recreation of it.

Developers said the movie and the game are so intertwined that to fully understand the concept of the Matrix you're going to have to see both movies and play the game. Depending on how you look at it is either really cool, or really expensive.

Matrix short gives a taste

David Spaner
The Province

Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Don't expect to see Keanu Reeves.

The Matrix is back.

Well, the actual sequel to The Matrix opens on May 15 but moviegoers appetites are being whetted by a short that's playing across North America with the new Lawrence Kasdan film Dreamcatcher.

The Final Flight of Osiris only runs 11 minutes but it cost nearly $5 million US and took more than a year to complete.

"It was good animation and kind of left me wanting more," said Michelle Cordingley, of Richmond, as she emerged from a SilverCity screening yesterday.

The Final Flight of Osiris is set after The Matrix but before the sequel The Matrix Reloaded.

The multi-ethnic characters in the computer-generated short are decidedly human- looking.

The action starts with blindfolded Asian woman Jue and black man Thaddeus engaging in gymnastic swordplay, flitting about in that lighter-than-air style made popular by The Matrix. The style was made even more popular by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and is seen in most every action movie these days.

This time, though, Jue and Thaddeus combine flying with undressing each other with flicks of their swords. The short quickly moves on to space wars before winding up in a facsimile of a downtown eastside alley.

Missing in computerized action are Matrix stars Carrie-Anne Moss, of Vancouver, and Keanu Reeves, of Toronto.

The computerization was good enough to surprise viewers.

"I was kind of fooled at the beginning of it," said Richmond resident Randy Steinke. "I thought it was real, not computer-generated."

dspaner@png.canwest.com

Matrix Fans Upset As Film Goes Missing

Upset fans of The Matrix were left booing the finale of a screening of Dreamcatcher in Hollywood on Thursday when a projectionist misplaced a copy of animated short The Final Flight of the Osiris.

Fans lined up outside the Writers Guild of America theater and then saw alien thriller Dreamcatcher just to see the nine minute animated film from the makers of The Matrix, which was due to be debuted after the film.

But when the house lights went up and a red-faced theater staffer explained there was no extra feature, audience members booed.

One guest said, "I've given up a Thursday night just to see this Matrix special. I can't help thinking it was just a ruse to get us in here and watch Dreamcatcher. Thank God it wasn't a bad film."

The Final Flight of The Osiris will be shown across America before Dreamcatcher, which opened yesterday.

Short films flesh out Matrix saga

By Alan Boyle
MSNBC

March 21 — What is the Animatrix? Sci-fi movie fans have known the answer to that question for months, and now the latest chapter is getting Oscar-weekend exposure on the big screen. For the uninitiated, the Animatrix is a nine-part series of short films based on “The Matrix” saga — including a nine-minute film that sets a new standard for computer-generated animation.

AMID THE RUN-UP to Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremonies, the latest “Matrix” mini-installment — titled “The Final Flight of the Osiris” — is notable for more than one reason:

Movie cross-marketing: The film is premiering Friday as a short subject preceding each showing of “Dreamcatcher,” a Stephen King space-alien thriller that one reviewer has already panned as "unspeakably bad.” The “Matrix” tie-in could well make up for the chilly reviews and boost the box-office take for “Dreamcatcher.” In fact, some fans say they are buying their ticket for “Final Flight” — and not necessarily staying for the main feature. “Matrix” myth-making: The nine Animatrix shorts fill gaps in the “Matrix” saga, so much so that producer Joel Silver has described the project as "Chapter 1.5” in the story. “Final Flight” sets the stage for the second film in the series, due for release in May. An Animatrix two-parter titled “Second Renaissance” serves as a prequel to the first film. Other films play off supporting characters in the series. The shape of animated things to come: “Final Flight” arguably stands as the best big-screen example of computer-generated imagery, or CGI. Over the past few years, high-tech animation techniques have revolutionized the film industry — but this year, CGI has a special place in the spotlight: One of the software programs used to create “Final Flight,” called Maya, already has earned its creators an Oscar for scientific and technical achievement — and Maya played a supporting role in all three of this year’s Oscar nominees for visual effects.

The shape of animated things to come: “Final Flight” arguably stands as the best big-screen example of computer-generated imagery, or CGI. Over the past few years, high-tech animation techniques have revolutionized the film industry — but this year, CGI has a special place in the spotlight: One of the software programs used to create “Final Flight,” called Maya, already has earned its creators an Oscar for scientific and technical achievement — and Maya played a supporting role in all three of this year’s Oscar nominees for visual effects.

Matrix 1.5

“The Final Flight of the Osiris,” scripted and supervised by “Matrix” writer/directors Andy and Larry Wachowski, was created at a cost of nearly $5 million. That sum may pale in comparison with the $310 million budget for the two “Matrix” feature films being released this year — but if you were to multiply the per-minute expense to cost out a 90-minute feature film, you’d get a hefty price tag of more than $50 million.

The action takes place after the end of the first “Matrix” film, in which a messiah named Neo breaks free of the virtual-reality illusions that are force-fed to most of humanity by a breed of robotic overlords. A crew allied with Neo and other rebels, riding in an airship called the Osiris, happens upon a new threat from the robots — and makes a “final flight” to warn the rebels.

Taken in isolation, the movie doesn’t have much of a plot, and the ending might seem incomprehensible. However, the mailing of a virtual-reality package sets the stage for May’s release of a video game titled "Enter the Matrix” and the next full-length feature, "The Matrix Reloaded.” In fact, “Final Flight” was originally slated to run just before “The Matrix Reloaded.”

When you see Matrix 2, it’ll suddenly have context,” said Kevin Bjorke, who was imaging supervisor for “Final Flight.”

STYLE AND SUBSTANCE

Right now, the biggest buzz over “Final Flight” has to do with its style rather than the story: The photorealistic 3-D animation was done over the course of 13 months by Square USA, the now-defunct film unit that created "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.” The director of “Final Flight,” Andy Jones, was also director for the “Final Fantasy” animation.

From the very beginning, “Flight” takes computer-generated imagery far beyond “Fantasy”: During a swordfight/striptease in a virtual-reality dojo, you can see the veins on arms, the stubble and pores on the face of the Osiris’ captain, even the goosebumps on the thong-clad buns of his female first mate.

“You needed to be able to have characters who were really, truly all in one piece,” Bjorke said. “All of the texturing and joining together of the skin shading had to be perfect.”

The size of the computer files to generate each character in “Final Fantasy” was 10 to 15 megabytes, he said; for “Final Flight,” the figure was more like 80 megabytes. “On any given day, we probably had 800 machines running at any one time,” Bjorke said.

The upgrades involved everything from the computerized lighting (with up to 60 light sources illuminating individual characters) to the supporting cast (with 300 computer-generated robots crawling over Osiris).

CGI geeks will notice little things like the movement of torn and folding fabric, which is particularly tough to simulate. They’ll also notice some of the shortcuts taken. For example, no one in the animation has long, flowing hair — which chews up a lot of computing power.

"We were much informed by looking at the original movie, to see where they felt it was safe to cheat,” Bjorke said. “We just tried to one-up it in return

ENTER THE ANIME MATRIX

“Final Flight” isn’t the final chapter in the Animatrix; it’s actually more of an anomaly. “It’s the only one that’s animated in 3-D computer animation,” Ryan Ball, Web editor for Animation magazine, noted. “The rest of them are in 2-D hand-drawn style.”

Four of the other shorts are being released over the World Wide Web; the other four are being held back for the DVD/video version, due to come out in June.

If J. Lo Covers Up, Has Hussein Won?

[Snipped for Keanu]

What really has us confused, though, is what's going on in L.A. this big party week. Is it "This isn't the time to celebrate" or "This isn't the time to let people see us celebrate"?

Vanity Fair will have its big party at Morton's on Oscar night, but the press has been disinvited. Women's Wear Daily, having a party on Wednesday night that was to have featured "over $50 million in rare sparkling-red carpet diamonds," did the same, limiting coverage to an in-house photographer and turning our correspondent from the door. Quite a nice door it was, too, belonging as it does to KEANU REEVES'S mother, PATRICIA. Some were dressed casually, some were not. Among the nots: PARIS HILTON, who wore $2 million worth of borrowed Kwiat diamonds.

Hilton Gets Carried Away

I told you that on Tuesday night heiress Paris Hilton made a scene at the Women’s Wear Daily party. The 20-year-old daughter of Rick and Kathy Hilton — descendants of hotelier Conrad Hilton — boasted she was wearing millions in diamonds. She also threw herself at a considerably older and wiser Keanu Reeves, who rejected her advances.

I saw Paris at a point when I thought she was leaving the festivities, but apparently she went back for more and continued to enjoy herself. A source who was involved with the party told me later, "Paris was carried out, nearly unconscious."

Another partygoer mostly agreed with this assessment. "I don’t think she was unconscious, but she was in bad shape."

Hilton and her sister Nikki, I am told, are referred to in some circles by the derogatory appellation "the Ramada sisters." They seem almost completely oblivious to world events, or even matters of common sense. Far from being well-educated madcap heiresses, they have created reputations for hard partying with little thought to the consequences.

Here’s what I think, as if they care: Even Ivanka Trump, Donald and Ivana’s daughter, has given up the modeling life for law and business schools. It’s an absolute crime that Paris Hilton has been allowed to skip higher education in favor of being a public nincompoop.

There certainly has to be a better use for this young woman than being a display case for cheap-looking jewelry. The party should have been over a long time ago. Even movie stars are starting to mock her, and that’s not so funny.

Keanu for Superman's New 'Excellent Adventure'?

It's on, it's off, and on again. Superman is back in the planning stages at Warner Bros.

My sources tell me that Keanu Reeves, star of Warner Bros.'s very successful The Matrix has been tapped by director Brett Ratner, to play the Man of Steel in Superman: Last Son of Krypton. Jeffrey Abrams, who wrote the feature Regarding Henry and invented TV's "Felicity" series, wrote the final, accepted script.

Ratner, director of the forthcoming Red Dragon, the Rush Hour movies, and the very interesting Family Man, is just about to sign to direct Last Son, finally ending Warner's tango with director McG, who is busy readying Charlie's Angels 2. Ratner had been rumored in Variety last month as a possible Superman director among many. But I'm told the deal is done and he is in.

Weirdly enough, Keanu's name is similar to that of the original beloved TV Superman, George Reeves.

Keanu's first big hit of course was Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Imagine if those characters had had X-ray vision!

Superman of late has had a hard time getting back to the screen. At one point Nicolas Cage was set to play him. Kevin Smith, of Chasing Amy and Dogma fame, wrote a script but that was abandoned. Then a Superman vs. Batman movie seemed like it was taking shape, with Jude Law and Colin Farrell rumored to be set for the respective parts. Law dropped out, and the new rumor was that Josh Hartnett was replacing him. But a wildly high budget made that project prohibitively expensive and it was scrapped. Interestingly, Superman vs. Batman was supposed to be directed by another Warner's favorite, Wolfgang Petersen.

But Petersen (are you still with me?)-director of The Perfect Storm, Das Boot and Air Force One, abandoned Superman vs. Batman for the historical epic Troy. This is the film that Brad Pitt also recently jumped to, leaving Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain feature high and dry in Australia just as they were ready to go into principal production.

Before the S v.B-Troy shuffle, Petersen had a staunch fan and supporter in then-Warner's chief of production, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who proudly announced the Petersen project and touted it to the trades. But last week, di Bonaventura was ousted from his position at the studio. Is there a connection? Was Petersen Kryptonite to Lorenzo? Indeed, he-and the Superman vs. Batman epic were what did him in. Alan Horn, now running Warner's on his own, championed the Abrams/Ratner simpler Superman idea.

Ironically, news of this new Superman film is coming to light just as the original movie Superman, Christopher Reeve (yeah, I know, this name is really weird) has announced that he's making progress in his effort to walk again. Wouldn't it be great if Ratner's new screenplay includes some kind of part for Reeve? That would give this project, which has been jinxed so far, the imprimatur it needs.

Keanu Rejects Superman Curse

Way across Los Angeles, Womens Wear Daily hosted its annual pre-Oscar party. The venue was a magnificent Spanish-style mansion owned by Keanu Reeves' mother. The house is famous for having been built by Cecil B. DeMille for his daughter so he wouldn't have to see her so often. (He lived around the corner.)

Reeves told me was definitely not going to play Superman in the upcoming film. "There's a curse!" he said, alluding to the suicide of George Reeves and the terrible accident suffered by Christopher Reeve.

Aside from casting, which is at a standstill, the project faces other challenges. Director Brett Ratner's option to direct Superman has run out. The word around town is that Warner Bros. once again wants the cutting edge director known only as McG, of Charlie's Angels fame, to come back to the project.

Meanwhile, Six Feet Under star Rachel Griffiths, rap impresario Damon Dash, the gorgeous Peggy Lipton, hot young actress Zoey Deschanel, Antwone Fisher star Joy Bryant, and producer/musician Donovan Leitch were among the well-known faces who made the WWD scene.

Hard to ignore was 20-ish heiress Paris Hilton, who seemed unaware that a war had commenced only a short time earlier. She sported $10,000 in diamonds which ornamented a skimpy dress and a large headdress.

The Matrix's pencil pusher

Ian Bailey
National Post

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

CREDIT: Jasin Boland, Warner Bros.

Carrie-Anne Moss, left, Laurence Fishburne, centre, and Keanu Reeves return to screens on May 15.

VANCOUVER - Steve Skroce, a Vancouver comic book artist who has drawn the monthly adventures of such characters as Spider-Man and Wolverine, has had the ultimate preview of the two sequels to the 1999 film The Matrix due out this year.

For about 15 months of 2000 and 2001, Skroce worked as a storyboard artist on The Matrix Reloaded (due May 15th) as well as The Matrix Revolutions (due in November), following up on his similar work on the original film.

The Matrix was an unexpected box-office hit, fusing science fiction, philosophy and the quirks of Japanese anime comic books with the kind of graceful martial-arts action common in Hong Kong cinema. Skroce had a hand in that action, turning out storyboards under the guidance of Andy and Larry Wachowski, the enigmatic brothers who wrote and directed all three films. Storyboards are like comic-book panels crafted to channel a director's ideas for scenes in a move, allowing filmmakers to work through camera moves, action beats and other aspects of the production long before the cameras roll film.

"It's a lot easier to change a pencil and art drawing than a visual effect," the 29-year-old artist explained.

Skroce jokes about his subservient role for the film. "I was the Wachowski brothers' instrument," quips Skroce. "I tried to the best of my ability to draw what they were asking me to draw. I tried to visualize their ideas. They are very descriptive. They have incredibly intense imaginations."

Another Matrix storyboard artist, Phillip Keller, was a little more blunt.

"The brothers are kind of maniacs about wanting to see every little detail, every little piece of glass and nut and bolt from the explosions and crashes," Keller said in an interview posted to the official Web site for the two sequels.

Pencil art is enough for most storyboards. But Skroce would ink over his Matrix work, giving it texture and detail. "It's very much finished comic-book artwork," he says. "They wanted it as close to what they had in their minds as possible."

At times, the brothers seem like oddballs. Newsweek reports they insisted on a clause in their contract with Warner Bros. that allows them to avoid having to do any publicity at all for their movies, even though the projects are a US$300-million gamble for the studio.

But Skroce says they are down-to-earth. "They're very decent guys, extremely understanding and respectful of the people they are working with," he says. They were up for beers with staff. They were open to ideas from any members of the production team without being sticklers for hierarchy, he recalls. As well,they saw detailed storyboards as a guide for everyone down the production line.

"They feel if earlier on they can get as much of their ideas as precise and clear in the storyboards everyone is doing, it helps the process, makes things easier."

It was a long process, as the films are big productions. To film the chaotic freeway chase that caps Reloaded the production team built their own 3.2-kilometre highway, including on-ramp and overpass, at an abandoned naval base in California. Filming there lasted seven weeks.

The two movies were shot one after the other over 270 days, starting in 2001. Production started in California before moving to Sydney, and Skroce moved with the crew.

"It was almost like college, like semesters," says Skroce. "Every time the production got up and moved somewhere else, there would be a few familiar faces, but new people would come and go."

Skroce first hooked up with the Wachowskis in the early 1990s, serving as penciller to their stories in a comic book called Ectokid. While Skroce kept focused on comics, putting in well-regarded runs on The Amazing Spider-Man and Wolverine, the brothers made their mark in Hollywood with the 1996 lesbian crime thriller Bound -- the only non-Matrix movie they have made.

"They were comic-book writers. They took off in Hollywood. They kept in touch," says Skroce.

And when they began to plan The Matrix, they called Skroce.

Work on the first movie was a rickety proposition because the relatively inexperienced brothers were trying to sell the studio on their ambitious plans.

Skroce figures he worked on the film for six months over an 18-month period, labouring on a sketch table in a Los Angeles hotel room.

"They would show these boards to the executives or whatever, do a little pitch thing and they would get more development money to do more artwork," he recalls.

With the new Matrix movies, things have changed. "Way more perks," jokes Skroce. "Everyone knew what The Matrix was. It was legit. It was a success. They had fancy offices built for the art department. The art department was three times as big as it was on the first movie. Everything on down a long line was tenfold what it was for the first movie."

Since wrapping up work on The Matrix, Skroce has gone on to another storyboard project. He is working on I, Robot -- a science-fiction film starring Will Smith that is to go into production in Vancouver within a few weeks.

He is not bothered by the fact that storyboards are not generally seen despite an artist's efforts to get them right. "For that part of me, I have my comics. As far as the [storyboards] go, my priority is making sure it's something the director wants and helping him."

He has not given up on comic books. Skroce is working weekends with one of his Matrix colleagues, Geoff Darrow, on Doc Frankenstein: Unholy Nemesis of Evil, a four-issue project. They are looking for a publisher. Skroce enjoys working on corporate characters, but also relishes the prospect of owning his own creations.

"I loved drawing Wolverine. I loved drawing Spider-Man, but at the end of the day they're like somebody else's toys," he says. "Something you own is yours."

ibailey@nationalpost.com

A prequel to the sequels

Barrett Hooper
National Post

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

If waiting another 57 days for the second film in the highly anticipated Matrix trilogy, The Matrix Reloaded, has you feeling like you're trapped in bullet time, take heart: Dreamcatcher, which opens Friday, may be just the red pill you need. Because screening between the coming attractions and the Stephen King sci-fi movie is Final Flight of the Osiris, a nine-minute CGI movie set on the other side of the rabbit hole.

Written by Matrix creators Larry and Andy Wachowski, Final Flight of the Osiris is one of nine animated shorts in the Animatrix series that serves as a prelude to Reloaded, which opens May 15, the same day the franchise's first video game, Enter the Matrix, hits stores. Two conventional animation shorts have already been released on the film's official Web site, with two more expected before opening day. Fans will only get to see the entire Animatrix when the series is released on DVD and video on June 3.

But the Animatrix is much more than a cleverly orchestrated marketing tool designed to draw fans into theatres to see the final two episodes of the mind-bending sci-fi/kung fu trilogy (parts two and three were filmed simultaneously at a cost of US$310-million, and in an unprecedented move, the conclusion, The Matrix Revolutions, will debut in November).

"All of these films, the two sequels, the Animatrix, and the video game all fit like pieces of a puzzle into the mythology the Wachowski brothers have created," says producer Joel Silver.

While Final Flight's story takes place between the events in the original Matrix (about a hacker named Neo who learns his reality is a computer simulation created by machines to enslave the human race) and Reloaded, unlike a couple of the other Animatrix episodes, it doesn't involve any of the established Matrix characters.

Instead, it follows Thadeus, captain of the titular hovercraft, and his samurai sword-wielding sidekick Jue as they try to get a message to Zion, the last free human city on Earth, while being pursued by a pack of squid-like robot sentinels.

"The Wachowskis have created something that stretches way beyond what we've seen in the first film," says Final Flight director Andy Jones, who made the ship sink in Titanic and also directed the CG feature Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

The short opens with a spectacular sword duel-cum-striptease between Thadeus and Jue that Jones says ups the stakes on what computer animation can do in the same way the Matrix did for live-action film.

"It's a very heated, erotic, sensual fight that comes very close to looking real," he says. But for some the Animatrix will be just a pale, pixilated imitation of the real thing. So what can we expect from Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions?

For his part, Silver isn't saying much. "They're about the long history of warfare between man and machines," he says. And the key, he continues, is that the Wachowski brothers had always conceived of the series as a trilogy. "A lot of time with sequels, we realize there's a commercial value in making more movies but the story's over so we rack our brains to figure out another story. I mean, I don't think Lethal Weapon 4 was a successful movie -- it was Friends with guns. But these guys came up with this whole story even before the first one was made. They needed to tell the first movie so you could understand the world that they wanted to tell their story in. It's the second two films that are the real movie."

bhooper@nationalpost.com

'Dreamcatcher,' King's Web of Weirdness, Is Overstuffed

BY SEAN P. MEANS
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

Dreamcatcher

Stephen King's alien adventure turns into an overplotted snow job. Rated R for violence, gore and language; 135 minutes (plus an 11-minute short, "The Animatrix: Final Flight of the Osiris"). Opening today everywhere.

Stephen King can pack a lot of imagination into 620 pages, but when director Lawrence Kasdan tries to cram it into 135 minutes of film -- as he does in "Dreamcatcher," an adaptation of King's 2001 novel -- things get messy. This frequently chilling but ultimately preposterous horror thriller begins with four lifelong buddies: Henry (Thomas Jane), a suicidal psychiatrist; Pete (Timothy Olyphant), a woman-chasing car salesman; Beaver (Jason Lee), a hard-drinking carpenter; and Jonesy (Damian Lewis), a history professor who, in the movie's prologue, survives a horrific pedestrian accident. The four go on their annual hunting retreat to a snowy Maine cabin -- it has to be Maine in a King story, doesn't it? -- and recall their fateful meeting with Duddits, a mentally challenged childhood pal who (as seen in "Stand By Me"-like flashback) bestowed each of them with a psychic gift. In the mountains, weird stuff happens. The animals begin to run away from an unknown something. Army helicopters circle menacingly above. And a stranded hiker comes into the cabin suffering from gastric distress -- caused, the guys soon learn, by flesh-eating snakelike space aliens. So we've got psychic hunting buddies, murderous E.T.s, and a shadowy military unit -- that would be enough for most movies. But, no, director Kasdan ("The Big Chill") and a script written by Kasdan and the legendary William Goldman ("Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid") pile on with body-possession, a plague, an insane Army leader (Morgan Freeman), an intergalactic plot to destroy the Earth, and the late appearance of an adult Duddits (Donnie Wahlberg). Kasdan skillfully ratchets the tension in the movie's first hour, as the dread of the who-knows-what in the woods grows and our four heroes face separate fears. He also finds a creative way to get around one of King's bigger hurdles -- how to depict on film conversations between Jonesy and an alien that take place in Jonesy's head.

But "Dreamcatcher" becomes a case of too much being not enough, as the undigestible chunks of plot and a surplus of odd characters overwhelm the suspense. By the time Kasdan gets to the point, the supposedly slambang ending falls apart into a silly special-effect shambles.

Warner Bros. has attached "Final Flight of the Osiris," an animated tie-in to the upcoming sequels to "The Matrix," to the end of "Dreamcatcher." This 11-minute short -- part of a nine-film series "The Animatrix" -- is a stylishly eye-popping parallel story (written by Larry and Andy Wachowski) that combines the movies' vertiginous camerawork, photorealistic computer animation and Japanese anime. "The Animatrix" will come out on DVD June 3, so only those dying for a "Matrix" fix need sit through "Dreamcatcher."

'Dreamcatcher' Short Kicks Off 'Matrix' Mania

By Scott Hettrick

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Frenzied fans of "The Matrix" may pony up for a "Dreamcatcher" ticket this weekend -- even if they don't stay for the movie.

That's because "Matrix"-related short film "The Final Flight of Osiris" will be shown nationwide before every screening of the Warner Bros. horror film, debuting on Friday.

"Osiris," which cost nearly $5 million, is one of nine short stories written or developed by "Matrix" writer-director brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski (news). It takes place after "The Matrix" and sets up the story of "The Matrix Reloaded," which opens May 15.

It also officially kicks off this year's "Matrix" onslaught, which includes two feature film sequels and "Matrix"-related DVDs, videogames, Internet shorts and CDs.

"They came to us with a six-page script and said make it fun, sexy and intense," said "Osiris" director Andy Jones, part of the team that produced the breakthrough CGI theatrical film "Final Fantasy." Many of the same team worked on "Osiris."

Once the short was made, franchise producer Joel Silver said he and Warner considered introducing it with a theatrical re-release of "The Matrix" before "Dreamcatcher" director Lawrence Kasdan (news) came along and offered to have it attached to his movie.

It took 13 months to complete "Osiris," which was originally intended to debut only on DVD and possibly the Internet.

Hollywood House Parties Go on Despite War

Fri Mar 21, 3:49 AM ET

By Bill Higgins

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Someday, in some footnote to history, someone will note that on the night bombs began falling on Baghdad, the two biggest social events in Los Angeles were an AIDS (news - web sites) benefit at Ozzy Osbourne's mansion and a fashion/diamonds event at Keanu Reeves (news)' mother's house.

Call it irony, or just a sign that in the universe in which Paris Hilton orbits, it takes more than war to stop a party.

"So what am I going to do?" said a woman chez Reeves. "Stay home, watch CNN and duct tape the windows?"

For those concerned, Keanu's mom is living quite well. She's got a stunning, 1920s Spanish-California manse built by Cecil B. DeMille (news) with carved wood ceilings, arched doorways, tile floors and mature olive trees on the back lawn.

One of the few guests to attend both of the evening's events was Barbara Davis. Asked to compare the houses, she thought a moment and said: "The Osbournes have pictures of their dead pets on the wall."

There were certainly no pet memorials at the Reeves house. In fact, the closest thing to an animal presence was a man in a sheared mink bomber jacket.

One woman's opinion

At a pre-Oscar party Wednesday night in the Los Feliz, Calif., home of Keanu Reeves' mother, Patricia, Six Feet Under star Rachel Griffiths said this about the red carpet being rolled up on Oscar night: "Well, that's not what the night is supposed to be about, a parade of who's wearing what. If that's all it has come to mean, then maybe it shouldn't be telecast at all. For years, the show was not televised. It's a night to honor actors who have achieved greatness in their craft ..."

Embedded in L.A.

March 20 — This year, there’s a lot less tinsel in Tinseltown. Hollywood’s answer to the bombs now dropping in Iraq seems to be to tone down all Oscar-related events. Sunday’s ceremony is still on—for now. But will it happen? Should it?

[Snipped for Keanu]

One such event, a Women’s Wear Daily party called “Dripping in Diamonds,” went on as scheduled last night but with similar changes. The paparazzi—who’d planned to take pictures of presumed guests Britney Spears, Queen Latifah, Ben Stiller and Keanu Reeves—were told not even to show up. Newspaper and magazine reporters had their invitations withdrawn. “We’re just going to eat the food and then go home and like the rest of the world, watch CNN,” said a guest. If it’s going to be that kind of week, why bother with the Oscars at all?

Oscar Scrambles to Keep Its Stars

By Diane Garrett

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Actor Will Smith (news) has withdrawn from the Academy Awards (news - web sites), other events are rolling up their red carpets, and ABC's Barbara Walters withdrew her Sunday night special as showbiz followed the motion picture academy's lead for a scaled-back Oscar week.

[Snipped for Keanu]

Sunday night's Vanity Fair party won't have a red carpet or press coverage, and neither will Paramount's, which is scheduled for the nearby Pacific Design Center's Astra West restaurant.

Other smaller soirees also canceled red-carpet arrivals -- though it's not clear exactly how lavish the red carpets were anticipated to be anyway. Those events included Wednesday night's Women's Wear Daily and the Diamond Information Center pre-Oscar bash at Keanu Reeve's mother's house.

The Matrix gets animated

By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun

HOLLYWOOD -- Hunger for the continuing saga of The Matrix is growing as June 3 and the release of The Matrix Reloaded draws nears.

To whet appetites of fans, producer Joel Silver is releasing the 11-minute animated The Matrix, Final Flight of the Osiris with the release of Dreamcatcher tomorrow.

"(It's) not a trailer for The Matrix Reloaded. It is its own film. It is what we like to call chapter 1.5 in The Matrix trilogy," says Silver.

Final Flight of the Osiris is one of nine original short films that were conceived by Larry and Andy Wachowski, creators of The Matrix trilogy.

Silver recalls when he and the Wachowskis went to Japan in 1999 to promote The Matrix, the filmmakers "were already huge fans of the Japanese anime style of animation but seeing more of it, were determined to employ it in some way for their Matrix films."

When Silver and the Wachowskis saw what director Andy Jones had accomplished on the animated feature Final Fantasy, they asked him to direct Final Flight of the Osiris. The other eight directors are from Asia.

"We wanted to push what we'd accomplished in Final Fantasy to a new level," says Jones.

Two animated films are available on the Internet and The Animatrix, as the complete series is known, will be available June 3 on video/ DVD.